The JAWS of Death: Music Streaming Service Grooveshark Shuts Down

Music pirating service Grooveshark closed its doors, Thursday April 30th, after finally admitted that it didn’t have the proper rights to the music it offered to its users.

The company’s website was replaced with the following:

Screen Shot: Grooveshark.com

Earlier this week, Grooveshark learned that it would need to find upwards of $750,000,000 USD to satisfy a lawsuit accusing it of what can only be referred to as ‘Mass-Piracy’.

Music-Listeners should not be too concerned with the death of Grooveshark, as other streaming services like Pandora and Spotify are legitimate as far as that law is concerned. With that said, many musicians like Taylor Swift have cut their ties with music streaming due to the low royalties offered.

Grooveshark’s demise won’t likely be forgotten by the music industry anytime soon. Their case offers a unique cautionary case study for those who wish to disrupt the status-quo and flout the flaw.

It took nearly a decade for Grooveshark’s demons to catch up to it. The apology posted on its website read as though it had been written while under the supervision of the major record labels.

‘Dear music fans,

Today we are shutting down Grooveshark.

We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music. But despite best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service.

That was wrong. We apologise. Without reservation.

As part of a settlement agreement with the major record companies, we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights.

At the time of our launch, few music services provided the experience we wanted to offer – and think you deserve. Fortunately that’s no longer the case. There are now hundreds of fan friendly, affordable services available for you to choose from, including Spotify, Deezer, Google Play, Beats Music, Rhapsody and Rdio, among many others.

“If you love music and respect the artists, songwriters and everyone else who makes great music possible, use a licensed service that compensates artists and other rights holders. You can find out more about the many great services available where you live here: http://whymusicmatters.com/find-music

It has been a privilege getting to know so many of your and enjoying great music together. Thank you for being such passionate fans.